Nigeria seeks IMF’s support on tax collection

The Federal Government is seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on modalities for improving tax collection, especially from the International Oil Companies (IOCs), Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed, has said.

She told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing 2018 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group Meetings, in Bali, Indonesia, that government has to be in a position to develop tools that could help pursue taxes, especially ”from very large corporates, like international oil companies (IOCs).”

The IOCs,according to her, has the greatest tax potential in Nigeria.

”This is the industry that, from the Thabo Mbeki Report, shows that about 70 per cent of the illicit financial flows that go out of Africa, Nigeria included, are related to the extractive industry,” she said.

“So we did ask for how we can effect transfer pricing and how we can stop the flows from that sector.”

She said these revenues are needed to enhance development.

Mrs. Ahmed said Nigeria’s delegation also met with investors from different parts of the world and told them “the Nigerian story and made it clear to them that Nigeria is a good place to do business and that the returns you get from Nigeria are high, at about 14 per cent, as against about four per cent,” in other countries.

She was confident that “the Eurobond we are trying to raise will have a positive outcome.”